Meditation: the Secret Key to Magickal Power

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Mat Auryn, author of the new Psychic Witch.

Meditation may not be the first thing people think of when they think about witchcraft, spells, or magickal powers. However, when people think of psychic ability, they often think about meditation and mindfulness to engage and enhance those abilities. I truly believe that both psychic and magickal ability are two sides of the same coin—one being the perception of energy and the other being the manipulation of energy. That being said, meditation would be the operating space where the two intersect and from which we engage and enhance both practices. These topics are the heart and core of my book, Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation.

Throughout all my training and practice over the years, any time I had the opportunity to chat with a witchcraft elder or a magickal practitioner that I respect deeply I would ask them, “What is the most valuable practice for increasing magickal results?” The answer I received was almost universal—meditation. For some, this answer may be surprising. What does witchcraft have to do with meditation and how could it possibly strengthen one’s witch power?

Let’s begin by looking at one of our foundational definitions of magick, which is often misquoted by Dion Fortune. In 1934, she wrote in an essay for London Forum that she defines magick “As the art of causing changes to take place in consciousness in accordance with will.”

Meditation, an almost universal practice throughout cultures, is the most natural manner in which we can actively change our consciousness by shifting our brainwave states. Through consciously altering our brainwave states we can tune in to perceive subtle energy, which in turn makes it easier to manipulate that energy.

We can begin to understand how our mind works, how we become distracted, and how to focus on a single thing. It’s through concentration that we can hone our own will power to be single-pointed and powerful. This sharpens our willpower and our resolve, which are keys to successful spellcasting. Similarly, meditation cultivates a clearer mind with fewer distractions, which provides powerful clarity when it comes to forming magickal goals in which we can direct our willpower and energy towards through spells.

Mindfulness meditations not only sharpen our focus and clarity, but also teaches us passivity and detachment. Detachment is the final step in successful spellcasting. Often we fixate, stress, or worry about the magickal results—if not doubting it all together. Meditation teaches us to be in a state of allowance without having an attachment to the results. In other words, meditation can assist us in not getting in our own way and unconsciously thwarting our own magick.

Most importantly, through meditation, we learn who we are, how we’re subconsciously wired, and (perhaps most importantly) how to get in touch with the core of our being. In witchcraft, there’s often a heavy emphasis on working with other spirits, which are indeed important relationships. However, the most important relationship with a spirit that you will ever have as a witch that will increase your magickal power is the relationship with your very own spirit.

Our thanks to Mat for his guest post! For more from Mat Auryn, read his article “Magick for All: Witchery from Nothing.”